Workshop (6) - "King of the World" & Structure

In today's lesson we had a bit of a break through. Initially we thought we were going to be performing the seven songs in different styles, and they were all connected through our characters we had created. However, after today's lesson, we appear to have made our own musical / play!

Losing the job:   We began our lesson by going over what we had come up with for "King of the World" so far. We then discussed having an additional scene after James has sat in the chair. We thought this scene could involve us all sitting in a line, with Lewis at the very end and James in the centre. Lewis's belongings would get passed down the line and put in a box by Lew's feet - bit like a conveyer belt. We could have items like a framed certificate, or newspaper cuttings being passed down. This is to show Lewis being kicked out of his job. Before this physical theatre section though, we would like to have a bit of dialogue in the piece to show the characters feelings at this point.

In Jail:   We work-shopped a scene which would show Lewis's character in jail. We had previously discussed him losing his job for having spent money that was the companies and not his, but we then discussed the idea of tax avoidance and thought that he could actually be arrested. We put three chairs in a triangle facing outwards - this formed the cell. Rob would multi-roll and become a police officer and walk Lewis in to the centre of the chairs. As Rob went to lock the door, Ollie, James and I all turned sideways on our chairs and put one arm up to reach the chair in front of us. Lewis then spoke the bridge of the song (that starts "why are we punished") as a monologue. Ollie, James and I all look up at Lewis during this to present him as going mad as he feels the walls are talking to and listening to him. We thought we could then go into a court room scene with me as a judge, sitting on Ollie's shoulders, and James and Rob as lawyers.

Characters:   This picture shows what we came up with for our characters. We knew that we definitely needed Ollie and Lewis to be within the same company for this piece to work. We thought that they should be of similar positions in the company. We then discussed that maybe Ollie and Lewis could be aware that a promotion is about to happen so Ollie and Lewis are in competition with each other. Jealousy takes over so Ollie wants to get as much dirt on Lewis as possible. Ollie, with Rob's help, could then discover Lewis's spending history. This would then result in Lewis's arrest. It would then reveal that Lewis's old college friend James helped him with the tax avoidance - resulting in James getting arrested too. James agreed to the scheme with Lewis as he needed money to feel / be good enough for his love interest (an inspiring actress / performer who is using him for his money and support to help prosper her own career).  Having come up with these back stories for our characters, we thought that we could have a court scene and then have flashbacks during this scene to explain the characters back stories.

Structure:   We originally were planning on doing the songs in order, but have now decided on creating a non-linear structure. We decided on this because we thought it would be nice to have a few flashbacks during the court room scene to show everyone's stories. We also discussed having a split screen to show Lewis spending his money on suits and James on the other side buying flowers for his lover - however, we decided against this idea as we are trying to keep it as separate songs for separate characters. Below is the structure that we came up with (however, we haven't decided what way round we would like to have the three flashbacks - we shall wait until a later lesson when we have created them to decide this):

• "Opening Sequence" - The first number which shows everyone's characters
• Dialogue to show the finance department people - this will have Lewis, Ollie and Rob in it. Lewis will leave and Rob and Ollie will then mention something about Lewis being suspicious and that they shall look into it.
• A section to show an email conversation between Lewis and James and what they have done. (Not sure what style this shall be)
• "King of the world" - From the beginning of the song up until Lewis's possessions being passed down the line and put in a box.
• Court scene - this shall be a dialogue scene that is returned to between each flash back.
  
  • "River won't flow" - duet of Ollie and Rob explaining their jealousy of Lewis. [For this number we also discussed creating two cars - re-creating what was the taxi in the "opening sequence" and then an old car. Lewis's posh car would be presented in the same way as the taxi, apart from the lights would fold up (to look like flip up lights on an old-fashioned car). Meanwhile, Ollie's car shall be made the same as the taxi, but he would get in and try to turn the lights on but they wouldn't come on - he would then mime hitting the steering wheel, and they would flicker on].
  • "She cries" - James's solo to explain his reasoning for agreeing to pull of the scheme. 
  • "Stars and the moon" - shows my characters thoughts and feelings. How she wants / needs money. 
• "Hear my Song" - Conclusion of our story and how each character wants their story to be told